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Pitch Trailer for the Tortured Souls Movie That Never Was


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I have a fiancee who is very, very understanding of my toy collecting habits.

McFarlane’s Tortured Souls are the one line she dearly wishes I’d get rid of, and insists I lock up securely when we eventually procreate, if she has not persuaded me to junk them by then. It’s understandable, but I love how Clive Barker pushed the limits with these things. There is a very palpable sense of body horror to them: regardless of whether they’ll harm you – which they will – the degree to which they’ve mutilated themselves is disturbing enough.

Right after the figures came out, Todd and Clive sent a set to every major movie studio in L.A. It wasn’t long before talk of a movie became real…but then 9-11 happened, and the thinking was that horror movies weren’t something people wanted to see (an assumption that ended up being untrue – three years later, which is the usual development-to-production time, horror surged like never before).

But if that Tortured Souls movie had happened, what might it have looked like? Thanks to Shock Till You Drop, we now know, as they’ve revealed the pitch trailer Barker and McFarlane put together from existing footage to define the tone of the project. Speaking as a fan of Barker the filmmaker, I’d call this a major missed opportunity.

Watch after the jump and tell me if you agree.